Family, A Brotherhood Christmas Story
by AClassyLady
Summary: Christmas with the Brotherhood, where the guys realize that they really are a family, maybe even bringing Wanda with them in the realization... Bit o' Lancitty and T/W. FINISHED.
1. Making Fun of Cheap Lingerie is the Best...

Family: A Brotherhood Christmas Story   
By: Kichara   
  
Howdy peoples and all the Christmas-laden ferrets out there! My first X-Men Evolution story, about the Brotherhood (um, duh... O.o), because I love those guys! ^^ And I stalk them happily to show my looooove... Whelp, enough of my noize, it's too late too be coming up with an actual interesting intro (gasp!). Enjoy or I'll... trout you!!! Fear the trout!! *is hit by said fish* See? O.o  
  
  
~'Twas the day before Christmas,   
And the Brotherhood was out   
'Cuz the guys had procrastinated,   
And were now listening to Wanda pout~   
  
"Can we leave yet?"   
  
"Awww, c'mon Wanda! Where's your Christmas spirit?" Lance asked with a grin, then regarded her with a solemn look. "Now, seriously, tell me what you think. You think Kitty'll like it?"   
  
The Goth raised an eyebrow skeptically at the object that Lance was holding out to her, her nose wrinkled in disgust. "Lance, girls grow out of Barbies when they hit they age of, oh…eight or so."   
  
He looked down at the box in his hands, face crestfallen. "Really?" He questioned, voice small.   
  
"Yes, really. Now can we leave this aisle? I'm sick of being surrounded by nauseating colors."  
  
Todd entered the aisle at that moment, looking at the aforementioned nauseating colors in surprise. "Geeeez, what're you guys doin' in HERE?" He leaned over, closely inspecting the Barbies on the shelf. "Man, you ever notice how racially diverse all Barbie's friends are? Look, there's a Korean friend, and a black cousin, and this guy looks kinda German…"  
  
Wanda picked up one and scowled irritably at the box, then scanned over the rest. "How come there isn't a mutant Barbie?"  
  
"Good point." Lance said thoughtfully, looking back at the Scarlet Witch. "Soooo… that's a definite 'no' for the Barbie thing, right?"  
  
"Oh c'mon, Lance. I KNOW you care about Kitty more to get her something better than this crap." She tossed the boxed Barbie onto the shelf, planting her hands on her hips.   
  
"Yeah, like a pair of underwear!" Pietro called out suddenly. "Jesus, you guys gotta come look at this shit!"   
  
The three exchanged looks and swam through the mass confusion of the wannabe Wal-mart that they were in and over to Pietro, who was shuffling through the lingerie. He pulled out a lacey see-through dress thing, skeptically studying the cheesy purple color, and held it out for them to see. "Whadda ya think?"  
  
"Hideous." Wanda wrinkled her nose in disgust.  
  
"Could be worse." He objected, tossing the piece of cheap lingerie back and shuffling through the rack again to pull out a Christmas set that came with a Santa hat and a pair of matching underwear that had a big Santa puffball on it. "Might look good on you, Wanda." He grinned.  
  
She growled, clenching her fists. Todd carefully looked at the horrendously cheesy outfit, then at Wanda, then back. "No way, yo. Not even Wanda could make that look good. Man, that puffball looks like a bunny tail!" He walked over to Pietro, taking the underwear from him and holding them up, one eyebrow raised. He shook his head, tossing them in the general direction of the rack.   
  
Lance, who'd walked over to them, was looking though the selection of cheaply-priced underwear and was now holding up a pair of satin Granny underwear. "What do you guys think?" He grinned.  
  
"Man, any higher and that thing could be a bathing suit!" Todd swatted at it, grinning at the mutant holding them.   
  
"Why the heck are they satin? For old ladies that 'get in the mood'?" Pietro asked, a lewd grin crossing his face.  
  
Lance tossed them down, a twisted smile on his face, as if he were torn between laughing and cringing at the same time. "Guess so."   
  
Wanda was still standing off to the side, and found a light smile trying to force its way onto her face. She shook her head, batting at her offending mouth. A crazed woman rapidly pushing a full cart in her direction forced Wanda out of the woman's way and she was obliged to step closer to the guys, who were having a great time making fun of all the bad underwear in the bin, to avoid injury from being run over by a shopping cart. "Aren't you guys done yet? And why are we out again?" She was cut off when she noticed a frantic guy run by, his arms full. He looked over in their direction, stopped, and quickly walked over. Without a word, he grabbed the Santa lingerie outfit and then ran off again.   
  
The guys watched his laden-down figure disappear behind an aisle and then looked at each other, eyes wide. Then they burst out laughing. Todd looked over at Wanda, surprised to see a little smile on her lips, and found his heart melting at the sight. She was so pretty when she smiled. Why couldn't she do it more often? She seemed to feel the weight of his gaze and turned to look at him, glaring. He gave her a lopsided smile, feeling nervous.   
  
"You guys didn't answer me." She commanded, fixing them all with her deadly glare.   
  
"Uh…we're here because we're major procrastinators and need to get Christmas stuff?" Lance answered for all of them sheepishly.  
  
"Awww, c'mon sweetums… You just aren't in the Christmas mood, are ya?" Todd asked, pouting.   
  
"No, I'm not. We're out here, stuck in this stupid discount store on Christmas Eve so you guys can rummage through bad underwear and I have to watch you and worry about not get run over by other slacker people doing last-minute shopping."   
  
Pietro shrugged, brushing by her. "Guess it's your fault if you can't have loosen up and have fun." His tone was almost snappish as he walked off.  
  
She glared at him until he was out of sight, then exchanged it to the two boys still there. They cringed, exchanging glances, then carefully walked past her, avoiding further eye contact. Lance disappeared into a nearby aisle and Todd, who was behind him, dared to look back at Wanda, who hadn't cut off her fierce glare. His face fell and then he shuffled after Lance. The sight of the almost-pained look on his face made Wanda blink in confusion. 'Why did he look so hurt?'   
  
'Maybe it's because you're being a super-bitch.' An inner voce taunted her and she frowned, thoughtful as she gazed at the underwear section that the boys had been having so much fun in. And she'd refused to join in with them, laughing and having a good time. 'Maybe… and maybe it wouldn't hurt to stop.' She reluctantly admitted to herself, slipping out of the underwear section and walking in the direction that the guys had gone in. She found them, quite surprisingly, in the little girls section with Fred and Pietro...trying on dress-up feather boa's.  
  
A loud burst of laughter made the boys turn around in surprise, gaping as they saw Wanda standing behind them, laughing her ass off.  
  
"Uh...Hey Wanda, uh..." Lance, who had two boa's in his hands, one green and the other blue, looked at Pietro's sister with a bright blush on his face. "Uh, you see... I was looking at these and wondering if Kitty would like one and then Pietro and Fred came by and we sorta started trying them on and..."  
  
Still laughing, she walked over, taking the blue one and draping it over his shoulders. "Looks good on you." She remarked, looking over the rest of the guys.  
  
"Hey Wanda, check it out!" She turned at the sound of he brother's voice to see him holding up a black and red feather boa. Her eyes widened and he grinned, waving it back and forth. "C'mon, I knowwwww you want it!"  
  
She snatched it from her brother, almost lovingly examining it, then looked back up, studying each of the guys in turn. "Fine, I'll wear it. But only if you guys do too."  
  
They exchanged looks, the same basic thought running through all their heads: Wanda is lightening up. Wanda lightening up= Good, Sacrificing our manliness for about half an hour= Wanda lightening up. "Okay." They agreed unanimously. She grinned and wrapped the black and crimson boa around her neck, stalking out the aisle with the guys close behind. They all headed over to the Christmas ornaments section and, after close deliberation, chose some after sorting through the very few that were left, most of which consisted of extremely cheesy ornaments like hot pink bows and singing elves that strangely resembled lawn gnomes, as Pietro pointed out. As they were heading out, Fred suddenly grabbed Lance and pulled him to the side.   
  
"Okay, here's the big question, "Fred pulled two objects from behind his back, holding them up to the rock tumbler's nose. "What do you think is better for Wanda? The beef jerky or the hair set?"  
  
"Uhhh...I GUESS the beef jerky, since Wanda's hair isn't even long enough for that stuff, plus I don't think she'll be all that enthusiastic about wearing..." He squinted, reading the box, "Bright...fuchsia..."  
  
Fred grinned, tossing the offending box onto the shelf. "Thanks man, I really wasn't sure." As he walked off, Lance picked up the box off the floor, studying the bows inside with interest. 'Hmmm, fuchsia...'   
  
"Hey Lance, you ready to go?" Todd called out.   
  
"Yeah, yeah... I'm ready!" With a shake of his head, Lance set the box down and headed towards where the others were standing in the long line at the cash register.   
  
Fred came up behind him, his arms full of unidentifiable...stuff. "Hey, just have everybody give me their stuff and money, okay? I got stuff for you guys and I don't want you to see it." He explained. The other Brotherhood members, glad to get out of waiting in line for half an hour, gladly dumped their stuff into a cart and each gave him money.  
  
"We'll be next door at the Food Store, okay Freddie?" Lance called out, leading his teammates past the people waiting in line, out the store doors and into the little food mart next door.  
  
"Okay, so what first?" Pietro asked, taking in all the frantic people that had filled up the store.   
  
"How 'bout we split up, and everybody goes and fights off someone for the stuff?" Wanda suggested, watching as two women quite aggressively pulled at a bag of potatoes. "Because that's how it looks like it's going to be."  
  
"Good idea." Lance pulled out a crumbled piece of paper out of his back pocket, looking it over. "Alright...Wanda, you go get the stuffing, Pietro, get some potatoes, Todd, you get the turkey, and I'll get the other stuff, since I got the list, alright?"  
  
With odd enthusiasm for getting groceries that could only be spawned from the holiday spirit, he was surprisingly answered with an energetic, "Okay!" from all sides before they took off.  
  
"Dun dun dun dun… dun dun dun dun dun dun…" Pietro carefully crept along the aisle, hugging the side as he hummed the Mission Impossible theme to himself. "Da nun nuh! Nuh nuh nuh… nuh nuh!!!" He continued on his way, eyes shifting in every direction as he took in his "threatening" surroundings, the produce section and the grocery-crazy shoppers that were milling about it hurriedly. Continuing to hum the song to himself, he dashed from one section of fruits and vegetables to the next, giving everyone wary looks as he oddly made his way over to the potatoes, getting more than one person to give the overly hyper speed demon a very funny look, which he happily ignored. He finally got to the potatoes, where the selection was getting pretty slim, and grabbed a sack, tossing it over his shoulder and taking a ready stance in the middle of all the people, his posture defensive over the potatoes. He looked them all over again, still merrily humming the song to himself, then slipped from food section to food section in search of the other Brotherhood members.   
  
Todd rubbed his hands over his upper arms as he bent over the side of the meat freezer, thoughtfully looking through the selection. He hummed 'Joy to the World' as he picked through the meager amount of food, then suddenly grabbed one. "Perfect!" He nearly yelled, tucking the turkey under his arm. Pietro zipped around the corner then and spotted him.   
  
"Hey, YouGotTheTurkey?" He asked in one breath.  
  
Todd blinked, taking a moment to sort out the words, then nodded, holding it up happily.   
  
Pietro's eyes narrowed in suspicion at the object, then trained themselves onto his friend's face. "You SURE that's a turkey?"   
  
"Yeah!" He juggled the cold bird, which had to weigh about 6 and a half pounds, from one hand to the next. "I kinda felt sorry for it, no one else wanted it. Anyway, we can't afford a bigger one. And even if we wanted to, they're all gone."  
  
Pietro looked over at the meat freezer to check it, and nodded in affirmation. "You're right. Oh well, we'll think of something, right?" He grinned at the younger teen.  
  
"Right." He grinned back. "Let's go find everyone else and go home."  
  
Wanda was found stalking the aisles in search of them, several boxes of generic brand stuffing in her arms. Pietro picked one up and happily danced around with it, making up a strange song about how they always bought store brand products and how they were just as good as the real thing, they were just 40 cents cheaper, didn't have that good-food guarantee so you couldn't sue the company, and always tasted a bit salty. His sister smiled, shaking her head and they walked on, weaving their way in and out of the human body-traffic inside the store. Near the entrance, they bumped into Fred, who was carrying all the bags from the store next door. He held them up, grinning triumphantly.   
  
"All done! We almost ready to go?" He asked, looking over the three of them. "Where's Lance?"  
  
"We're looking for the slow poke." Pietro explained, shrugging. He suddenly yelped as something cool came in contact with his neck and spun around to see Lance holding up a can of cranberry sauce, a wide grin plastered on his face. The speedster frowned, paused for a second as he tried to come up with an appropriate insult, then stuck his tongue out in what could only be described as the most mature raspberry he could conjure.   
  
Wanda, whose very-unlike-her-usual-self mood hadn't faded, smiled and brushed past the two, hurriedly heading for a line that had just opened up. The boys saw what she was doing and Pietro hurried up to get there before any of the other shoppers, who were making a mad rush for the line. He did so, just in time, and triumphantly dumped the potatoes on the counter. The rest of the Brotherhood pushed past all the other people in line and the guys exchanged high fives once they'd set their groceries down, next to the potatoes.   
  
The cashier's face lit up at the sight of the boys' triumphant gesture, a soft smile crossing her tired face as she rung them up. Lance fished his wallet out of his jeans pocket, paid her and they grabbed the bags, heading out into the snowy winter evening. Wanda walked a little closer to them than she'd been earlier that day, unable to keep the little smile off her face as the guys began singing "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" and danced around in the snow, mostly because they were trying to keep warm. The snow was too high on all the roads for them to risk taking Lance's Jeep out, which was a sensitive vehicle when it came to the cold, anyway. The male portion of the team started up on "The Twelve Redneck Days of Christmas", desperately trying to teach her the lyrics so she could join in, and she laughed again. She couldn't remember the last time she'd done it so much in one day.  
  
As the Brotherhood walked through the snowy street, a figure left a shop behind them and stared, almost in disbelief. She watched the group as they loudly sang the disgruntle Christmas song, good naturedly pushing each other back and forth, laughing, then the young spectator smiled. Rogue brushed back a lock of hair the same color as the snow falling on it and shook her head, maybe out of endearment than anything else, watching until they were out of sight, then headed home. She had to talk to someone there. 


	2. Sibling Talk and Corny Christmas Decorat...

Family: A Brotherhood Christmas Story Chapter 2 By: Kichara  
  
Geez, I realized that I shoulda said this story wasn't a stand-alone and that I was going to write more! All you poor readers that are used to crap writers that write only one chapter and leave their story for you to agonize over. I feel sorry for you. *pats you all on the head and gives you chocolate covered cherries* Fear not though, for I am a deranged fangirl that will write, even when she should be studying! O.o  
  
~*~*~*~ ~So the guys came home, and Pulled out the decorations And surprisingly enough, Wanda was starting to feel like a relation~  
  
"Home at last!" Pietro crowed in triumph as they walked through the front door, stomping the snow from their shoes.  
  
"Man, it's chilly in here, huh?" Todd mentioned as they put away the groceries in the kitchen.  
  
"Yeah, the heater must've died again. I gotta go take another look at it." Lance frowned thoughtfully. He opened the junk drawer, retrieving a flashlight, and opened the basement door. The lights didn't work all that well in the winter, so flashlights and candles had to do the trick, he mused as he headed down into the dark cellar to check out the heater.  
  
"Hey, we gonna go get the rest of the Christmas stuff outta the attic?" Fred asked, watching Lance disappear down the steps.  
  
"Sounds like a plan!" Todd grinned, jumping past him. "C'mon, hurry up!" With unnaturally happy bounds, he led the larger mutant up the stairs.  
  
"He's just like a little kid." Wanda realized after watching the grinning teen eagerly jump up the stairs. Her brother shrugged good-naturedly.  
  
"Pretty much." His face grew a bit wistful. "We didn't really get to celebrate Christmas last year, we got called on a mission to go scout this city for some mutant that we never found. I think he really missed the whole thing." He took in Wanda's look of surprise. "He's hasn't had all that great of a life, but I'd be damned if I didn't say he isn't what started the Christmas spirit around here." He leaned against the counter, long legs crossing over one another and stared thoughtfully at the ceiling, a little smile on his face. "Y'know, he made us all sing Christmas carols all day long, while we were walking through the dirty slush of that city, cold as hell and not finding a damned thing. I couldn't believe he could be so damned chipper, it was almost irritating. But not really." A crash high above their heads sounded, followed by a triumphant yell. "Sounds like they're having fun. Listen, Wanda, I know you haven't been here all that long, but. this is home, if you let it be." His smile grew and he dropped his head back down from watching the ceiling, gaining eye contact with her.  
  
"You guys are just like a family, aren't you?" Her voice was soft, the words sounding very small, and she suddenly felt colder than ever in that big kitchen, wrapping her arms around her torso as she cut off eye contact with him to stare intently at the floor.  
  
His warm smile didn't falter as he considered the words. "Yeah, I guess so. Crazy, dysfunctional, messed-up family made up of a bunch of rag-tag maniac teens that nobody wants." He paused thoughtfully. "So we've got each other." Another jubilant cry sounded from the attic and he turned to go, stopping at the doorway. "I'm going to see how much damage they're making up there. Wanna join?"  
  
Knowing instinctively that going up those steps was a lot more than just going to check on the guys, she surprised both herself and her brother when she nodded and following her silvery-haired sibling up the staircase, her head swimming. It was amazing how such a simple word could have such a big effect on someone who was usually too stoic to care. Family.  
  
They'd just found the Christmas stuff that morning, when Lance had gone up to the attic to look for a light bulb. The boxes had been stacked haphazardly in the corner, probably left there by whoever had owned the house before. Todd had been the most enthusiastic about the discovery, and had started bringing some of the cartons down to the living room for them to go through. He hadn't had a chance to fully inspect them, however, as they'd had to go out shopping right after that.  
  
The Maximoff twins opened the door to the attic to find the teen carefully shifting through the contents of a box. The almost child-like expression on his open face as he did so made Wanda stop, peering at him intently. He looked up, his face breaking into a grin. "We found lights!"  
  
"Lots of 'em!" Fred added proudly, holding out a big box towards Pietro. "We're gonna hang 'em up outside. You guys wanna help?"  
  
Pietro's lips pursed, musing. "That's more Lance's thing than."  
  
"Awww, c'mon! It'll be fun!" Todd broke off whatever he was going to say, picking up the box he was holding. "We'll all do it, yo!"  
  
Fred, who was still standing in front of the thin boy, peered at him almost pleadingly. "Please?"  
  
Pietro laughed, "AlrightAlright!! Geeeeez, I didn't say I WOULDN'T. Are there any more boxes?"  
  
"This one." Todd nudged the said box with his foot, scooting it towards the older boy, who picked it up.  
  
"C'mon, let's see how Mr. Fix-It's doing." Shifting the box so that he could hold it more comfortably, he led them downstairs, where they dumped the boxes in the foyer, then , after fishing out another flashlight from the junk drawer, wandered down the basement, where they found Lance fiddling with the monstrous-looking heater. The piece of machinery was ancient, resembling a gaping monster in the darkness, and a finicky thing to try to get to work.  
  
"Any luck?" Wanda asked, watching as he thoughtfully tapped a pipe with a wretch, then tightened a bolt with the tool. A loud hum and clank sounded from the hulking machine and he grinned triumphantly.  
  
"Yep!"  
  
"Hey rock tumbler, wanna hang lights?" Pietro questioned, extending a slender hand to help the built teen off of the floor.  
  
"Lights?" Lance's dark brows drew together in incomprehension as he took the offered hand, allowing himself to be pulled to his feet.  
  
"Todd and Freddie found a ton of Christmas lights in the attic with all that Christmas stuff. If we hurry up and get it done now, we could get it finished before the sun goes down!"  
  
Lance pointed his flashlight at the watch on his wrist, squinting at the time. "Pie, it's winter. That'll be in about half an hour!"  
  
"Then you better hurry up, slowpoke!" The other caroled, grabbing his arm and pulling him up the stairs, everyone else in tow.  
  
The five bundled back up once they got to the foyer and headed out into the crisp evening air, lights in hand.  
  
*~*~*~*~*  
  
A knock on the door surprised Kitty out of her post-dinner daydream. "Come in!" She called out, sitting up on her bed. The door opened to reveal Rogue, who had a thoughtful expression on her pale face. "Hah, Kitty." She drawled, closing the door behind her. "Ah wanted to talk to yah about somethin'."  
  
The other girl smiled, scooting back on the bed and motioning for her friend to sit in front of her. "Okay, shoot!"  
  
The redhead took the offered spot, smiling. "Thanks. Listen, KitKat." She paused for a long moment, thinking. "You want to take a trip with me tomorrow, aftah dinner and everything is done over here?"  
  
Kitty propped her head up with her hand, her elbow resting on her knee. "Sure! Where?"  
  
"Well. ta go see the Brotherhood."  
  
The other's eyes widened significantly and she leaned closer, her voice lowered. "Really? You want to go see the guys?"  
  
"Don't you?" Rogue countered, eyes warm.  
  
"Well, yeah. I mean, if you really want to go then. YES!" She squealed, falling back onto her pillows. " Man, I TOTALLY wanted to go see Lance, but I wasn't sure about going, you know? Thanks Rogue!" She threw her arms around the other girl in a spontaneous hug.  
  
The girl shook her auburn head of hair, smiling, carefully returning the hug. "Believe me, it's not a problem. Ah really don't mind seeing everyone, at least for Christmas."  
  
*~*~*~  
  
"Okay! Plug it in!" Todd called out from the roof as he connected the last two strands.  
  
"Alright, here goes!" Lance plugged in the extension cord, the lights coming on in response.  
  
Todd let out a whoop, jumping from the roof and landing on the soft snow in the front yard. He hopped back to where everyone else was standing, admiring their handiwork.  
  
"It looks really good, huh?" Fred smiled, looking over the old Victorian house, which had been decorated with EVERY outside decoration they'd found, including, but not limited to a set of three foot candles, a family of Christmas lawn flamingos, an inflatable Santa and snowman, and a nativity, which had been missing the baby Jesus. Unable to find it, they'd improvised, and the manger now hosted a head of lettuce wrapped in a pillowcase with one of Wanda's black crosses around it's. neck. To make sure that all of the lights were used, the roof, windows and porch were lined in the lights, a bright potpourri of multi-colored stands, white, blue, red, green and hot pink. They'd also made about a dozen little light trees on the lawn, and had laid out line after line of lights on the roof, with a huge hot pink arrow pointing to the chimney. It all certainly gave the house that certain. something.  
  
The project had been one where everyone had participated, with Lance up on Fred's shoulders to hold the lights up, Wanda passing them up to him, with Todd following behind them with a staple gun, jumping up every few.inches to pound another staple in. Pietro had been in charge of cleaning out the shed to find all of the extension cords, and had found a ton more Christmas stuff in the barely used shed, like the illuminated flamingos.  
  
"Awesome." Todd answered, stepping back several feet and flopping down in the snow to look over the colorful house in full, a little smile playing on his lips.  
  
"Hey dreamy!" A gigantic "snowball" fell onto the punked-out teenager with the words, both courtesy of Fred.  
  
Todd yelped in surprise, falling back as he was half buried by the huge bunch of snow. He sat up, shaking the snow from his sandy hair, and cast a murderous glare in his offender's direction. Acting quickly, he scooped up some of the crystallized water, compacting it into a ball, and threw it at Fred, connecting solidly with his face.  
  
The big mutant sputtered, not bothering to wipe his face off as he gathered together more snow for a giant snowball. Due to the fact that snow was half obscuring his vision, however, the snowball didn't quite hit its intended target, smashing into Wanda instead, who fell onto the ground. Fred gasped, stumbling verbally for an explanation. "Sorry, Wanda, I didn't mean to hit you, it was an accident." His words were cut off as another snowball came in contact with his face, hitting solidly like the last one made by Todd, then by another, thrown by a smirking Wanda.  
  
Pietro took the opportunity, while his sister was gloating, to quickly scoop up a ball of snow and hurl it at her. She noticed at the last moment, however, and it solidly thumped into Lance instead, who was standing behind her. The boy glared fiercely at the other, bending down to pack together a snowball. "That's." another snowball from Pietro made contact with him, exploding upon impact on his shoulder. "it.." another on his shoulder, "PIETRO!!!" he roared as another ball hit him in the head, and a round was thrown at the other members of the Brotherhood in a split second. A tremor, courtesy of Lance, caught the quickster off guard, however, and he tumbled to the ground, immediately getting pelted by snowballs from all sides.  
  
"Hey! No fair!" He protested, holding his hands up and ducking his head.  
  
"That's what you think, speedy!" Todd proclaimed, tossing a snowball at the slender boy.  
  
"Alright, you guys asked for it." He began scooping up snow and throwing it at rapid speed, looking almost as if he were using automatic fire. Fred, Lance, Wanda and Todd spread out, running in all directions, laughing like crazy and occasionally kneeling down to grab a handful of snow and hurl it at Pietro. The battle lasted for a good half-hour, before all the members of the Brotherhood ran out of energy and collapsed to the snow, exhausted.  
  
"That was fun, huh?" Pietro called out from where he was sprawled out on the snow, gasping and watching his smoky breath rise up into the air.  
  
"You could call it that." Lance said with a laugh, rolling over on his side, exhausted.  
  
"Who won?" Fred wondered, somehow finding the energy to sit up.  
  
"Does it matter?" Wanda pointed out, smiling and sitting up, arms draped across her knees. It was a newfound discovery for her to realize that there was nothing quite exhausting. or satisfying as a good snow ball fight.  
  
"Hey Lance, you're gonna get our tree, right?" Todd, who had flopped down next to him, asked.  
  
"First thing in the morning, I promise." He pushed himself to stand up with a groan. "I gotta go wrap all my present."  
  
"Oh yeah, me too." Fred realized, standing up as well.  
  
"I knew I was forgetting about SOMETHING." Pietro muttered.  
  
"At least I'm not the only one that didn't yet." Todd grinned, relieved.  
  
"Man, we need to be given the 'Official Procrastinators of the Year' Award." Lance told Wanda, abashed.  
  
Her face, already rosy from being outside and going through so much physical exertion, grew a few shades darker, as she admitted, "Well, I haven't either, so I guess I can be one too."  
  
"Hey, you really are one of us now." He grinned, holding out his hand to help her up. She took it almost sheepishly, but smiling as well.  
  
"Maybe." She agreed, much to everyone's surprise. "Now let's go get those presents wrapped, alright?"  
  
"Procrastinators unite!" Pietro yelled triumphantly, raising his fists in the air.  
  
*~*~*~  
  
"Hey Lance!" Pietro called out loudly, briskly and quite irritatingly knocking on Lance's closed door. "C'mon, I need the tape!"  
  
"You're not the only one!" The young man argued from the other side of the door.  
  
"That's true, yo." Todd said, poking his head out of his room to get some more tape.  
  
"I need some too." Fred said, coming up the stairs.  
  
"Well, it'll be a lot easier to distribute it if Lance would stop hogging it!" The bedroom door opened, revealing said person in its frame, looking pretty, for lack of a better word. pissed.  
  
"Actually, it'd be a lot easier if SOMEONE who can move really FAST would run out and get us more." He said through gritted teeth, glaring at Pietro.  
  
"Hey, I don't have to go out and."  
  
"Pietro, get your ass moving and go get some tape." A voice growled from behind, and they all turned to see an irritated Wanda standing in the hallway. "I need some."  
  
"Alright, fine!" Noticing the telltale warning signs from a would-be irate sister, he backed away from them. "ButYouGuysOweMe!" He said in one breath, then dashed down the stairs and out of the house.  
  
The remaining four made do with the tape for the time being before Pietro came back, about twenty minutes later, looking out of breath with a five pack of scotch tape in one hand. "I hadda wrestle this from an old lady, so you guys better appreciate it." He looked wounded, closely inspecting his arm. "She hit me with her umbrella."  
  
"Thanks Pie!" Todd said, grabbing the pack from him and pulling out a roll, hurrying off before he got caught in the middle of a typical Pietro a sob story.  
  
The other Brotherhood members obviously had the same idea, as they each grabbed a roll that was too quick for the exhausted speed demon, retreating to their rooms, treasured tape in tow. Pietro, disappointed that there wasn't anyone for him to complain to about his pain-filled journey to the Dollar Store, headed for his own room, where he finished wrapping his presents and headed to bed, still tired. 'Little old ladies can wear you down. Good thing the X-Geeks haven't figured that out yet.' He realized sleepily just before he drifted off.  
  
~*~*~*  
  
Erg, this was a pain to try to figure out how to end this chapter. Hmmm, this chapter was a lot more sweet and serious than my first. I'm hoping to create a nice balance between the two for later chapter. Whelp, I'm all done with school now, and should have more writing done, it's just gonna be a pain to fit it into my work schedule. Oh well, review and tell me what you think, and don't forget: *deep dramatic voice* this WILL be continued. I wonder if that's good or bad. O.o 


	3. Spiked Eggnog and Three and a Half Logs ...

Family: A Brotherhood Christmas Story By: Kichara  
  
Chapter Three: Spiked Eggnog and Three and a Half Logs of Firewood  
  
~So Christmas came, too early for some, While everyone made fun of Pietro's long underwear, and Storm and Logan had too much eggnog with rum, It wasn't the start of an ordinary Christmas Day~  
  
It's kind of funny, but I had no idea just how friggin' clique it is to write a Brotherhood X-mas story until two chapters into it. Bleh. Oh well! This whole story was spawned by me watching On Angel's Wings and getting quite peeved that the BoM didn't get ANY airtime! I mean, GEEZ, they could've had the guys being shown for a whole 8 seconds a t the end of the episode, doing. whatever. Made me quite angry and vengeful. Many lawn gnomes were hurt.  
  
Enjoy!  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
"PSST!! LANCE! LANCE!" Little pokes accompanied the sleep-depriving words and Lance rolled over, groaning in protest.  
  
"G'way." He mumbled, burying his head into his pillow.  
  
"C'mon, you PROMISED you'd go get the tree." The voice was beginning to finally resemble something familiar, and the rock tumbler blearily opened a chocolate brown eye to confirm it.  
  
Todd. The boy was barely half a foot from his face, squatting down by the bed so that his eyes were on the same level as Lance's.  
  
"What time is it?" He grumbled, eyebrow raising above the open eye.  
  
"8 minutes after 7." Another voice spoke up proudly and Lance was forced to open both eyes now, as well as shift his head a bit to see Fred standing at the edge of the bed in his oversized blue pajamas whose army of little yellow ducks were almost painful to look at. He grinned hugely at the sleepy rock tumbler.  
  
" 'First thing in the morning', remember?" Todd quoted, poking Lance in the shoulder again. The older boy groaned, and was moving to roll over to try and become one with the pillow again, when he was interrupted by a pitiful, "Pleeeeeeaaaaase?"  
  
"Oh, alright!" He sat up, shoving the covers back and taking a full ten seconds to give each a baleful glare.  
  
They smiled at him innocently.  
  
The mutant sighed in defeat, a bit of a laugh behind the exasperated action. "You guys are too much. You wake anyone else up yet?"  
  
"Pietro's next, but uh, we're thinking we should wait on Wanda." Fred answered for the two of them.  
  
Lance smiled wickedly, throwing off the covers and standing up boldly. "Why wait? After all, it's Christmas morning. Everyone's gotta wake up early!"  
  
The two other boys were didn't answer, only gawking at Lance instead.  
  
"What?" He blinked in bewilderment, looking down at himself. He looked alright, no unnatural blotches on his skin, hair seemed to be in place, he wasn't breaking out or anything, he was dressed in.  
  
"You look like Tom Cruise in Risky Business." Todd pointed out, blinking slowly. Fred only nodded slowly, unable to fabricate anything comprehendible. True enough, Lance was dressed in a pair of tighty whities, a beat-up white dress shirt, and a pair of socks. "You just need the sunglasses, and it would complete the image, yo."  
  
"Hmmm, you think so?" Lance smirked, looking very amused.  
  
"Wait a minute. you weren't even trying to look like him? It just.happened?!" Fred shook his head in amazement, while Lance beamed.  
  
"Yeah, shows my TRUE masculinity. Being Tom Cruise without even trying!" He grinned.  
  
"Whatever. Put some pants on." Todd said, grabbing a pair of jeans off the floor and tossing them at his housemate.  
  
"You're just jealous." Lance practically whined as he tugged the jeans on, motioning his head towards Todd's nightclothes, which consisted off an ancient sweatshirt was more holes than fabric, and pair of sweatpants that were several sizes to big for him, with the ends ragged and a gaping hole in one of the knees.  
  
"Whatever works is fine with me." The shorter boy shrugged.  
  
"Alright then. SO in the name of Christmas morning, we get to go wake everyone up early!" Lance reminded them, almost bounding out of the room. The other two were close behind, grinning wildly as they headed towards Pietro's room.  
  
They opened the door, finding the white-haired boy was sprawled across the bed, dressed in some long magenta underwear, along with a pair of pink bunny slippers on his feet, arms and legs akimbo, with the covers half on the floor, snoring softly. He mumbled, arm flopping up above his head suddenly.  
  
"He doesn't even stay still in his sleep." Fred realized in awe. "So. how we getting him up?"  
  
They stood in silence for a long moment, contemplating seriously as to how to take on the current situation. The concentration and silence that accompanied it broke off, however, when Todd suddenly made a running leap, landing squarely on the slender boy.  
  
"MERRY CHRISTMAS!!" He exclaimed, voice full of merriment and joy.. and was promptly thrown off the bed.  
  
"Jesus, you guys!" Pietro sat up quickly, looking around and taking in the other three that were occupying his room: Lance and Fred standing by the door, looking as if they were about to bust out laughing at any given moment and Todd, who was on the floor, a triumphant grin on his face. The speed demon shook his head, rolling his sky blue eyes toward the ceiling, then smiled. "Merry Christmas, then." He looked over at his alarm clock, wincing. "Very EARLY Christmas." He groaned, flopping back onto the bed.  
  
"Nope, can't have that!" Todd jumped off the floor, landing next to Pietro. He shoved the taller boy off the bed, neatly depositing him into a heap on the floor.  
  
"Lemme alone." The heap complained, curling up into a ball. "It's too early to face the world."  
  
"Not on Christmas, it isn't." Lance answered, stepping over and lightly kicking the curled-up mutant. "Everyone's waking up early. Wanda's next."  
  
Pietro's head snapped up at the last sentence, a mischievous grin on his face. "Reeeeaaally?" He questioned, hopeful.  
  
"Yes, really. Now c'mon, it's going to be a group effort, I'm sure." Pietro picked himself up off the floor, and the boys headed in the direction of what could be their inevitable doom: Wanda's room. (dum dum duuuumm.)  
  
They crept into the Goth's room, peering around cautiously. The big lump on the bed was obviously Wanda, completely covered with blankets. "So. how're we doing this?" Fred whispered, keeping a wary eye on the mound on the bed.  
  
"Dunno, but I'm dying to see what the hell Wanda wears to bed. I can't believe she's been living with us for months now and none of us have seen her in her night clothes." Lance remarked thoughtfully.  
  
"Maybe she wears pink underoos like her brother." Todd teased, getting a sharp poke into the arm, courtesy of Pietro.  
  
"Oh shut up and go wake her up. It'll be fun to watch you get zapped again." He hissed, pushing Todd further into the room.  
  
"Man, permission from family? Alright!" He exclaimed eagerly, hopping over to the bed and grabbing a hold of the blankets, while the rest of the guys watched in anticipation, wanting to either see Wanda in a nightgown, or Todd get turned into a crispy froggy for the fiftieth time that month, or both. The teen carefully pulled off the layers of blankets, interrupted in what he was doing by a voice in the corner of the room.  
  
"What the hell are you guys doing?" The male population of the room turned to the source of the nonchalant words, wide-eyed. Wanda stood in the frame of her bathroom, toothbrush in one hand, and they all blushed sheepishly, especially the mutant that still had her bedcovers fisted in a hand.  
  
"You're.already awake." He realized aloud, blush burning brighter as he dropped the blankets back onto the bed.  
  
"And already dressed." Pietro pointed out, narrowing his eyes at her in question. "Do you even wear night clothes?"  
  
"That's a secret." She answered smugly, leaning against the frame. "But I can guarantee if I do, their not long hot pink underwear. Merry Christmas, by the way."  
  
"It's fuchsia!" He protested, looking down at the offending garment.  
  
"And they match your fuzzy bunny slippers." Fred pointed out, sending the rest of the room into giggles.  
  
Wanda chortled to herself, shaking her head almost affectionately. "Good. Now get out of my room. I've got to finish getting ready."  
  
*~*~*~  
  
The Scarlet Witch descended the stairs a few minutes later to find her brother, Todd, and Fred milling about the living room thoughtfully. "Did Lance already leave to get the tree?" She questioned, reaching the bottom of the steps.  
  
"Yep, we're just trying to figure out what to do." Pietro answered, both for himself and for the other two in the room.  
  
"Speak for yourself; I gotta go start dinner." Fred spoke up, heading for the kitchen.  
  
"Still pretty nippy in here, huh?" Pietro remarked, tugging down his sweater more. He'd changed out of his ridiculed nightclothes into a pair of tight fitting jeans and a kitted Christmas sweater.  
  
"Well, Lance fixed the heater, but it' below thirty out there." Wanda pointed out, motioning to the window with a nod of her head, then sat down on the couch and wrapping the worn blanket lying on it around her shoulders.  
  
Todd grinned suddenly, hopping past them and towards the front door.  
  
"Where're you going?" Pietro wondered, sitting down next to his twin.  
  
"Gotta check something out," was the simple answer as Toad grabbed his jacket and tossed it on, then headed outside.  
  
Feeling restless, Wanda got up, sauntering into the kitchen. Fred was rummaging through the cabinets, pulling out pots and pans. " Hey Wanda," He greeted her with a smile as she walked in. "What's up?"  
  
"I'm just feeling a little agitated, I guess. I don't want to just sit around and do nothing." She answered, watching him pull out two sacks of potatoes and dump them onto the table. The food shopping they'd done yesterday had mostly been just to make sure they had a lot of food. The rest had, surprisingly, been done before, to make sure that they had enough.  
  
"Yeah, I feel the same way. " He agreed, setting down the potato peeler and a pot onto the table by the vegetables. "Plus it's cool, cuz I get to make dinner. I didn't get to last year." He added regretfully.  
  
"So Pietro told me." She moved closer, leaning against the table and listening to him intently.  
  
"Yeah, of all the times for Mystique to make us go do something," He scowled at the memory, then brightened suddenly. "It could've been worse, though. Todd got us started on singing Christmas songs, and it wasn't all that bad. Maybe it's cuz we were together, and that was all that really mattered in the end."  
  
Wanda nodded thoughtfully. The front door opened with a bang, and they looked over to see Todd, shaking snow off his shoulders, holding a funny- looking broom. thingy, and surprisingly enough, wearing a pair of scuba goggles.  
  
"What's that?" Wanda wondered, looking over the item in his hand.  
  
"Chimney sweeper. Geez, didn't you ever see Mary Poppins? I found it in the shed."  
  
"Why're you wearing swimming goggles?" Fred pointed out.  
  
"Because they bring out the color of my eyes." Todd said sarcastically. "'Cause I'm gonna sweep out the chimney so we can actually use it, and dun wanna get dirt and crap in my eyes."  
  
"Ohhhh." Fred nodded in understanding, then diverted his attention back to the potatoes on the table.  
  
Sweeper tossed over his shoulder, Todd marched into the living room, past Pietro, who blinked at him uncertainly from his position on the couch, then without further ado, scrambled up into the fireplace. The silvery-haired teen looked over at Wanda as she walked in, only raising an eyebrow in question.  
  
"He says he's cleaning it out so we can use it." She answered to the look, flopping back down next to him and listening to the scuffling echoing from the fireplace, then raised an eyebrow as she heard the mutant inside the chimney began humming "Whistle While You Work." "So. uh," Pietro studied her expectantly. "I'm bored; Since he's doing that, you want to go get some firewood."  
  
Her twin wrinkled up his nose. "Manual labor?"  
  
"Get your lazy ass up." She said, pushing him off the couch.  
  
"Heyyyyy!!!" He whined. "That wasn't very nice." He added with a very visible pout.  
  
"Quit being a whiny bitch." The Scarlet Witch held out a hand, which he accepted for her to help him to his feet. "Now let's go get some wood."  
  
"Neh neh nehhhh." Pietro taunted childishly, following her out of the room.  
  
*~*~*~  
  
Several hours later, the Maximoff twins had miraculously managed, after numerous arguments, Pietro whining more, Wanda zapping him repeatedly, both of them attempting to figure out how to use an axe (and thankfully they still had their hands attached), and several bottles of aspirin, to be able to dump a whopping three and a half logs onto the living room floor. By that time, Fred had half of dinner finished, Todd had cleaned out the chimney, taken a shower, gotten dressed and was now sprawled out on the couch, flipping thorough Christmas specials. He watched the brother and sister come in, proudly dumping the meager amount of wood by the fireplace. He look at the "pile", then at them expectantly, then back at it, then up at them again. "Um, is that all?"  
  
"Of course! Do you have any idea how much work was put into these?" Pietro pleaded, eyes almost looking watery.  
  
Todd gazed up at the ceiling thoughtfully, going back to the arguments he'd heard going on between the twins when he's been in the chimney..  
  
"But I don't wanna chop woooood.."  
  
"Too bad, because you are anyway."  
  
"You're a big meanie."  
  
"And you're stupid. Now chop."  
  
"No! You chop!"  
  
"No, you!"  
  
"You!"  
  
"You!"  
  
"It was you're stupid idea!"  
  
"And you need to do something productive, so chop the damned wood!"  
  
"But I don't know how to!"  
  
"Well, neither do I!"  
  
"So why should I do it?!"  
  
"It's simple, all you have to do is hold the damned axe up and bring it down!"  
  
"See? You DO know how to do it! Go at it!"  
  
"Pietro.." The words had been following by a very familiar zap, Pietro squealing in indignation, then the argument continuing.  
  
Todd came back to the present. "Sooo. by work is that how much effort it took to actually get the wood chopped from you guys arguing?"  
  
They both deflated, looking at each other sheepishly.  
  
"Something like that." Pietro admitted.  
  
The awkwardness was broken by the door slamming open, accompanied by Lance calling out. "I'm home! Help me with this thing!"  
  
Fred came out of the kitchen to grab the tree from Lance, bringing it into the designated spot in the living room.  
  
Pietro skeptically studied the tree. It was a nice tree, big and full and. still attached to its roots. He raised an eyebrow, looking Lance in the eye. "Soooo. where'd you get the tree from Lance?"  
  
"Oh. y'know that uh, place down the road. They pull it right out of the ground for you so it's nice and fresh!" He smiled brilliantly, not fooling any of the other Brotherhood members for a moment.  
  
"Uh huhhhhh." The speed demon looked down at the rooted tree, then back up at Avalanche. "So where'd you steal it from, Lance?"  
  
Lance blushed, caught, but then his face broke out into a huge grin. " The Institute." He chucked.  
  
"ALRIGHT!" Everyone chorused, exchanging high five's with him.  
  
"So let's set it up then, alright?" Lance suggested, once the noise had settled down. He walked over to the shrubbery, then blinked suddenly in confusion. "Um. we don't have a stand."  
  
"Figures." Wanda shook her head.  
  
"Hey, we'll just improvise, then!" Freddy said. And so they did. Or made many sad attempts to, including, but not limited to: a towel rack, flower pots of varying sizes, the spare tire from Lance's Jeep, and one of Lance's helmets. They wound up eventually combining the largest flower pot they had, set up in the spare tire to give it a sturdy base.  
  
"There! Perfect!" Todd stood back to marvel at the tree's. ghetto-like goodness. It was the effort that mattered. "Now we get to decorate it!"  
  
A mad scramble was made to get the decorations, while Lance took the radio from his room, set it up in the living room, and tuned it into a local station that played Christmas songs all season long so that they could all sing along to "Holly Jolly Christmas", "Frosty", and other such noise-like things filled with joy.  
  
Somewhere in the middle of the decorating, while the Nutcracker Suite was playing on the radio, Wanda heard something outside and went to the window to investigate. What she saw made her jaw drop and eyes widen in its disturbing-ness.  
  
"What's wrong?" Lance noticed her immobile figure and they all got to the window, staring in silent shock and horror as they witnessed Storm in the yard, Santa hat jauntily atop her head, run back and forth, arms in front of her in a Freakazoid-fashion, making sound effects as she mock-flew, "Whoosh! Whoosh! I control the weather! Feeeeeeaaaar meeeeee!!!!!!!" And for whatever reason, probably something that had to do with large amounts of eggnog that had been consumed, Wolverine was prancing after her in a pink tutu, fairy wand in hand. They made several rounds through the yard before making their merry way off into the woods.  
  
It was some time before the Brotherhood managed to regain their composure. Not that they could find anything to say.  
  
*~*~*~  
  
Whoo, writing at 2:14 in the morning, surviving only on Mountain Dew Code Red and fudge does wonders for the creative mind! O.o Many thanks to my boyfriend Chris, for whom I wouldn't have been able to come up with all the ideas for this with out. Plus he got me the fudge. ^^ I Reeaaaally wanted this to have been out by Christmas, but it didn't work out. Ohhhh well. Next chapter will be the last, I'm hoping to get it out before New Years. More thanks to Joriel, who made the very good suggestion to make Freddy actually have (gasp!) character. Please go read her extremely awesome (but sadly unappreciated) story, devil's Dance! It's under my favorite stories, for all the lazy people. ^^ Puppy ciao!  
  
Reminiscing as I listen to Sailor Moon music and tossing a Wal-Mart plastic bag up into the air repeatedly, Kichara 


	4. Pietro Displays the Fine Art of Fruitine...

Family: A Brotherhood Christmas Story  
  
By: Kichara  
  
Chapter Four: Pietro Displaying the Fine Art of Fruiti-ness and We Reach the Mushy Sweet Conclusion  
  
~So Christmas Evening Started Happening  
  
With dinner, some visitors, and the boys dancing funny  
  
Lance got teased, and came dangerously close to snapping  
  
But all turns out well on Christmas.~  
  
~Whelp, this is the last chapter! I'd been hoping to actually have this story done by Christmas, but that didn't really work out. Damn work! Yeah, yeah, and there's my whining, as if anybody WANTS to hear it. O.o  
  
Man, this is the last time I attempt to make little poem-song things at the beginning of every chapter. Bleh..~  
  
Lance carefully hooked the last ornament on the tree, although the package of ramen noodles certainly strained the definition 'ornament'. They'd only had so many that had been in storage and, while brainstorming for ideas as to how they could fill the tree up more, Fred had come up with the idea that they put stuff on the tree that sort of represented things that made up their lives. Pietro had pointed out that Lance's spare tire had started that, as the Brotherhood couldn't survive without the sturdy vehicle. Besides that, they'd hung up one of Todd's CD's, as music was always something that was filling the house, one of Wanda's rings to celebrate her becoming part of the Brotherhood that year, and a package of ramen noodles, which, at only 11 cents a package, was the staple food around the house. The rapid flickering of the channels on the TV made Lance turn around to see Pietro and Todd on the couch, Todd channel surfing like there was no tomorrow.  
  
"What're you doing? We've only got five channels!" Lance said in exasperation, watching the same channels go by over and over again.  
  
"I know, but we're waiting for Rudolph to come on, so I'm all antsy!" Todd argued, finally settling on tossing Pietro the controller.  
  
Pietro took up the antsy channel surfing with vigor, a little grin on his face. "C'mon, you. Start!"  
  
"What time does it come on?" Lance glanced over at the clock, which said the time was about 3:28.  
  
"3:30." They said in unison, eyes still glued onto the non-stop TV.  
  
"Then quit it!" He scowled. "Aren't you two a little old to be watching that crap?' The remote controller squarely hit him on the head. "Ow!"  
  
"Shut up." Pietro stuck his tongue out at the older boy.  
  
"I think he's just in denial." Todd remarked, settling back onto the worn in cushions.  
  
"Yeah, whatever." Lance headed out of the room, going to see what the rest of the Brotherhood was up to, rubbing his head.  
  
"You'll be back!" Pietro shouted at his retreating figure as it left the room. "You can't resist!"  
  
"What're you yelling about?" Wanda sauntered into the room, leaning against the doorframe.  
  
"Lance is being a big stupid head and is making fun of us." Her twin said, lower lip pushed out in a definite pout.  
  
"About what?" The Scarlet Witch raised one dark eyebrow, in reaction to both the situation and her brother's childish comments on it.  
  
"Us watching Christmas specials." He folded his arms and sank into the couch, extending his legs to their full length and looking just like a five year old having a temper tantrum.  
  
"Christmas specials." Her tone was skeptical as the other eyebrow lifted.  
  
"Awww, c'mon sweetie, come and watch with us!" Todd scooted over so there was room for her on the couch.  
  
"That's alright. I think I'll pass." She turned to leave, when a sudden wind blew her hair forward and before she knew what was happening, arms were around her and then she was deposited onto the couch, held there securely by her brother's slender arms. She struggled, "Pietro, if you don't let me go NOW, I'm going to decorate the walls with you."  
  
"Pleeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaase?" he whined. "Just for five minutes, okay? Then I'll let you go."  
  
Her eye twitched a bit as she answered. "Promise?"  
  
"Promise." He grinned, letting her go and sitting back just as the movie started.  
  
So the five minutes passed, with the boys watching Wanda intently for any signs of her leaving and Wanda watching the TV intently. The guys exchanged glances and grinned in victory. About ten minutes later, Lance popped his head into the room, more than surprised to see Wanda sitting with Pietro and Todd on the couch, her eyes glued on Rudolph and Clarece.  
  
"Wanda, what're you."  
  
"Shhh!" She cut him off with one hand, eyes never leaving the screen.  
  
Lance felt himself pulled over to the TV by some unknown force, suddenly mesmerized by the clay animation reindeer on the screen, then silently backed up to the couch, where room was made for him between Pietro and Wanda. Pietro flashed a thumbs up sign to Todd, who grinned back.  
  
A commercial break eventually came up on the TV and Lance, realizing that somehow he'd been watching the movie for the past twenty minutes, moved to get up, when Pietro grabbed him by the waist. "YOU'RE not going anywhere." He commanded, piercing Lance's eyes with his own bright one's.  
  
"NO WAY." Avalanche protested, pushing the white haired boy away.  
  
"SIT." A voice on the other side of him made him pause in the motion of getting up, turning to stare at a stubborn Wanda.  
  
"If I watch it, you watch it." She commanded, tugging on his arm with a rueful smile. "Now sit."  
  
Grumbling, the mutant relaxed back into the sofa, although the complaints were forgotten as the movie came back on, and were completely gone by the time it was over, as everyone scrambled for the dog-eared TV Guide.  
  
"Okay, turn it to channel five! Frosty's next!" Todd called out, then had the Guide snatched from him by Pietro, who flipped through the pages rapidly, concluding that they needed to watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" after that. The floppy book was grabbed by Wanda next, who scrutinizing looked over the pages, with Lance over her shoulder.  
  
Fred strolled into the living room about three hours later, and was quite surprised to find Lance, Pietro, Todd and Wanda cuddling together on the couch, tearfully watching the end of "It's a Wonderful Life."  
  
"Uh." He cleared his throat to get their attention. "Dinner's ready."  
  
Wanda stood up quickly, swiping at her eyes to hide the tears that had started building there. Lance and Pietro half ran past her to get to the kitchen with Fred close behind. Todd, on the other hand, noticed her glassy eyes and stopped next to her, smiling as he reached up and brushed away one of the cute tears, a little smile on his face.  
  
She scowled, ready to argue that she hadn't been crying, when he cut off her words. "Man, the fire getting to you too? It's nice, but makes you're eyes all watery, y'know?" The words weren't entirely true, and she knew they were only said to make her not feel stupid about getting teary eyed. She smiled in gratification, nodding. They walked to the kitchen together, each sporting their own secret smile.  
  
The massive amounts of food had been set up on the counter, buffet-style, so that they could all sit at the table without searching for elbow room. Todd and Wanda grabbed plates to fill them up with everyone else, and they all sat down at the table. After a quick grace, they dug in, ravenous after fasting all day for dinner. The turkey was gone after one round, carefully rationed out between the five teenagers. There was ample amount of mashed potatoes, even for Fred, so the plates were piled high with those, with a decent amount of everything else to fill up the Brotherhood's bottomless stomachs. After dinner, the typical process of cleaning the kitchen was put into action. In other words, tossing everything into the sink and hoping it would magically go away.  
  
It happened occasionally, when one of the guys had nothing better to do and were bored out of their minds enough to do dishes, but other than that, plates were pretty hard to come by as most of them were usually dirty and filling up the sink. After dumping the dishes, Pietro, Wanda, and Fred marched into the living room again, while Todd and Lance went outside to get more firewood for the dying fire, as the Maximoff Twins' supply wasn't exactly enough to last the night. Pietro turned the radio back on and he sat with his sister and Fred on the couch to listen to Christmas songs and wait for the other two to come back inside.  
  
Lance and Todd came in, stomping snow from the feet. "Damn, it's cold out there!" A shiver ran up Lance's spine as he said the words and he hurriedly kicked off his soggy boots, half jogging to the living room to get the fire started back up, Todd close behind. Within a few minutes, they had the fire blazing again, with a grateful Brotherhood standing around it. With the sun going down outside, the temperature in the house had easily dropped about twenty degrees, and the fireplace going more than helped make the house livable. Todd headed upstairs to make a fire in the fireplace that was in Wanda's room, as they hoped it would help to keep the entire house warm with a fire going upstairs. He got back to the living room just as the George Michael song, "Last Christmas" came on the radio.  
  
Pietro suddenly grabbed his sister, who was closest to him, by the shoulders, dancing around the room with her while he joyfully sang along with it. "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart, but the very next day, you gave it away."  
  
She fell back onto the couch, and was shocked beyond all belief as the rest of the guys suddenly began. singing along with the chorus, dancing around quite. gay-like. Or maybe the most disturbing thing was that her brother knew ALL the lyrics. Not able to think much about it, she merely sat back on the couch, content with laughing her ass off as the male portion of the Brotherhood REALLY got into the song.  
  
"This year, to save me from tears, I'll give it to someone special (Special.)"  
  
"You're not nervous, are ya?" Rogue helped Kitty step over a slippery patch of ice on the road as they came around the bend that led to the Brotherhood's house.  
  
"Not really, I just. Well, maybe a little bit." Her friend admitted with a little laugh, which was cut short as they rounded the bend and came in view of the house, lit up and completely covered with Christmas lights, and decked out with every Christmas decoration imaginable. "Wow." She said in awe, shocked by the usually dingy house's transformation.  
  
"Yeah, wow." Rogue blinked in amazement, stopping for a moment to just take it all in, then led Kitty up the front yard. Music could be heard coming from the living room, so the girls headed over to one of it's windows, and stopped in astonishment, jaws dropping as they saw Lance, Todd, Fred, and of course, Pietro all singing along to "Last Christmas" and capering around the living room, looking as though they were auditioning for a dance club for extremely gay men.  
  
A shiver ran up Lance's spine, the kind that comes from the feeling that someone is watching you, and he looked around frantically, stopping in shock when he saw Rogue and Kitty standing outside the window, peering inside with wide eyes. Todd accidentally bumped into the boy's stiff figure and he had to catch himself before he fell to the floor. "Yo, Lance, what's u." his words trailed off as he followed Lance's point of view and saw the two X-Men watching the show that was being put on display in the room. His mouth dropped in surprise, a bright crimson painting across his cheeks. Fred noticed the two, what they were gaping at, and stopped what he was doing, turning a lovely shade of red himself. The only oblivious person was Pietro, who danced past them happily.  
  
Lance nudged him sharply, whispering loudly, "Pietro, quit it!"  
  
"No! I don't wanna!" The speed demon protested, wriggling out of Lance's grip. He noticed the girls at the window but decided to ignore their presence as he finished off the song, prancing across the length of the room, with a bright red Lance walking past him to go open the door for the girls.  
  
"Merry Christmas, Lance." An uncharacteristic grin was on Rogue's face as she greeted the rock tumbler. "Would you boys like some time to yourselves?"  
  
"Oh shut up." He said to the floor, letting them in and shutting the door behind them.  
  
"Awww, I thought you were cute!" Kitty protested, smiling at him. "A little strange and unexpected, but. yeah!"  
  
"Um, thanks?"  
  
"Merry Christmas, dork!" Kitty said as Pietro sauntered into the room, flicking him in the forehead and bringing him back to reality.  
  
"What? I LIKE dancing!" He protested, pouting and swatting her hand away.  
  
"Yes, and you're very pretty." Rogue commented nonchalantly, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Really?!" Pietro squealed fagishly, then stopped. "Wait." An awkward silence followed, before the entire room broke out into laughter.  
  
"Have you guys opened presents yet?" Kitty asked, holding up the wrapped packages that were in her arms.  
  
"Nope, we decided to save them for the end of the day. Y'know, save the best for last and all that." Lance explained, taking the presents from her and leading her into the living room, where he placed them under the tree with the others.  
  
"Ya know, that tree looks AWFULLY familiar." Rogue said, placing a finger on her jaw as she thoughtfully looked over the ghetto pine.  
  
"Really?" Lance said innocently as the rest of the Brotherhood snickered.  
  
"Yeah, Scott fell into the hole from it this afternoon."  
  
"YES!!" the guys exchanged high fives while Lance raised a fist in victory.  
  
"Rock on!" Everyone but Kitty, who thought it was cute (although you would've thought she'd have gotten over the whole rock pun thing by now), groaned in unison.  
  
"Don't you ever get tired of that?" Pietro asked wearily, tossing himself onto the couch.  
  
"Bitch bitch." Lance made a face at the quickster, who stuck his tongue out in response.  
  
"So are we ready to open presents then?" Wanda rolled her eyes at her brother, and breaking up the inevitable fight that was about the follow between the two.  
  
"Alright!" Fred agreed, sitting down next to the tree to sort out the gifts. "This one's for Wanda, and this is for Pietro."  
  
Everyone found spots to get comfortable, with Lance and Kitty sitting on the rug by the fireplace, Rogue taking up the unoccupied spot on the couch, and Todd and Wanda propped up against the side of the sofa.  
  
Once the gifts were sorted, they looked at each other expectedly. "Lance, you go first." Wanda said after a moment's silence as everyone tried to figure out how to go about with the whole present thing.  
  
"Okay.." He opened hers first, a set of guitar picks. Thanking her profusely, he moved onto Todd's, which was a bunch of blank sheet music pages and a pack of regular notebook paper. He looked at the teen questionably.  
  
"The regular paper's for you to write your lyrics on." He explained.  
  
"You write music?" Rogue was a bit surprised. She'd known that Lance played the guitar, but was unaware he actually created songs.  
  
"You should hear the one's about Kitty." Pietro said, rolling his eyes, while said girl blushed.  
  
"Pain in the ass." Lance opened the irritating Quickster's next, a simple white envelope. He opened the envelope, pulling out a gift certificate to a place called Faravilla's.  
  
"What's this?" He wondered, raising an eyebrow at Quicksilver, who grinned widely, draping an arm over the couch side and looking like a Cheshire cat.  
  
"Just go there. Bring Kitty, she'll love it." He said enigmatically, still grinning as he went through the possibilities when his housemate and his girlfriend walked into the store, which was devoted entirely to sex.  
  
Knowing that the fast talking mutant wasn't going to say anything else, Lance merely rolled his eyes, moving onto the next present, from Rogue.  
  
"Wait, I want you all of ya to open mine together, alright?" She drawled, nodding in satisfaction as he placed hers to the side, then unwrapped Fred's, which was. a fluffy pink bathroom set. He blushed brightly, avoiding his girlfriend's curious eyes.  
  
"Hey, that's just like the bathroom set I want for." She narrowed her eyes, maybe more in embarrassment than anger, at him. "Did you tell them about the plans I have for the dream house for us?"  
  
"Um, maybe." He blushed brighter, feeling his ears grow hot, while the rest of the guys burst out laughing.  
  
"Don't worry Kitty, he was tired and babbling at the time." Todd said, grinning widely at Shadowcat, who blushed, smiling good-naturedly.  
  
"Okay, like, give it a rest!" She said to the dying down snickers, handing her own presents to Lance, two wrapped up packages. He opened the biggest one first, surprised to find it to be a souped-up Super Soaker.  
  
"I had Hank fix it up for me." She added, motioning to the toy in his hands. "You can directly hook it up to the hose and all sorts of other stuff." Lance grinned, imagining the possibilities for summer, then moved onto the other one from her, which was a simple black T-Shirt that said, "You Rock My World." in white letters across the front. If he was going to say anything, it was drowned out by the instant howl of laughter that filled the room, courtesy of all his male housemates.  
  
"Here, open mine." The rock tumbler said to Kitty, holding out a lumpy little package.  
  
She took a moment to narrow an eye in confusion at it, then carefully opened the present. It was a smooth stone that just fit into the palm of her hand, painted pink with her name written across it in white, surrounded by a pain-stakingly painted red heart.  
  
"Um, it's a paperweight." Lance rubbed the back of his neck, blushing deeply.  
  
"It's so cute! Thank you!" She wrapped her arms around his neck in a quick hug, kissing him on the cheek.  
  
Pietro leaned down to his sister and Todd. "All that trouble yesterday and he doesn't even wind up buying her anything." He said scrutinizing, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Oh shut up. It's sweet." Wanda said, pushing her brother back. "Fred, you go now." She lifted her voice to talk to the giant, who grinned, grabbing something that looked suspiciously like a book,(not that it was all that easy to hide what books were when you wrapped them), from Todd.  
  
It was in fact a book, "Being Martha Stewart on a Low Budget", and Fred grinned, thanking the amphibious mutant and looking forward to the chance to use it.  
  
Pietro had given him an envelope too, and it turned out to be a $50 gift certificate to Outback Steakhouse, Fred's favorite restaurant. Next was Wanda's, which was a pair of new overalls.  
  
"I know you've only got two pairs." The Scarlet Witch explained with a smile.  
  
The last one was from Lance. "Wait for that, I got you guys stuff I want you to open at the same time, like Rogies." He said, winking at the Goth, who scowled at the old nickname the boys had annoyed her with when she'd been living at the Brotherhood Boarding House.  
  
"So who opens their presents next?" Fred asked, looking around the room.  
  
"Ooo, oo! Me!" Pietro said, waving his arm.  
  
"Go on." Lance rolled his eyes.  
  
Pietro tore into them gleefully, first going for the biggest one, which was a new shirt from Todd. Tight-fitting, like he liked his shirts, short- sleeved, and dark purple. He grinned like the clothes hog he was, looking forward to when the weather would heat up and he could wear the shirt comfortably. Hell, he might even try it out before then. Who cares if you're cold when you look good?  
  
He opened Wanda's next, which, surprisingly, was in a plain white envelope. He opened it, and found it to be a plain piece of notebook paper that was a note saying that his sister wouldn't kill him for thirty days. "YAY!!!" He grinned, folding up the note and putting it into his pocket, in case he needed to bring it out later to remind her of it's existence.  
  
"I have a feeling I'm going to regret that." Wanda said with a sigh.  
  
Pietro set Lance's aside, then ripped the paper off his last one, from Fred. It was... a shower set, all in the scent of Field o' Strawberries. He blinked at the present for a few minutes, then at Fred, who grinned proudly. "Um, thanks..." He looked questionably at Lance, who shrugged in response.  
  
"Uh, okay... Todd, you next." He said, nudging the teen.  
  
Todd grabbed Wanda's first, opened it and finding it was a nice drawing pencil and charcoal set, all in a nice wood box. He blinked in amazement. "Wow, thanks." He said in awe, looking over it. "I really needed one of these. They're expensive." He smiled at her and Wanda blinked several times in shock, both from him not grabbing her in an embarrassing hug and from the way that her stomach flipped at the sight of his rather cute smile.  
  
"You're welcome." She said simply, trying to figure out if she needed a cat scan for actually associating Todd with the word 'cute' for.... the umpteenth time that day.  
  
Pietro's was next, a book titled "Men Who Love Women Who Hate Men". Todd was looking forward to reading it.  
  
He opened Fred's last, waiting for Lance's, and found it was... a CD of Gregorian Chants. "Um, thanks, Freddy." He narrowed his eyes in bewilderment at the CD.  
  
"The wonders of last minute Christmas shopping." Pietro mumbled, looking at his shower set.  
  
Todd nodded in agreement. "It's the thought that counts, right?" He whispered back, then motioned to Wanda.  
  
"C'mon sweetums, you next."  
  
Deciding against frying him in the name of it being Christmas, and zapping your annoying (but still cute) housemates that were calling you annoying nicknames was bad, she moved on. Then stopped, blinking and going back over her previous thoughts. 'Wait a minute...'  
  
"Waaanda..." Pietro sing-songed, poking his sibling. She growled, swatting his hand away, then grabbed Fred's present, opening it. A package of beef jerky. Yep, the wonders of last minute Christmas shopping...  
  
For the sake of being nice, she smiled at Fred, who beamed in response, then opened her brother's next. It was a plain black shirt, girl fitted, with the phrase, "It's Not That I Don't Like You, I'm Just Antisocial", written across the front in white letters. She smiled, thanking her brother.  
  
There was a small present from Rogue, who Wanda had made friends with quite easily recently, when the two had seen each other at the local Hot Topic. The Scarlet Witch opened it curiously. It was a lock for her door, a he steel one and the girl looked at the other Goth in amazement. "How did you know I needed..."  
  
"Ah used to live here too, remembah?" Rogue smiled in amusement, while the male part of the room blushed sheepishly.  
  
Nodding in agreement, Wanda set aside Lance's present. From Todd, there were two presents. Half cringing, she opened the first one, which was a beautiful necklace, a red jewel on a silver chain and stunningly gorgeous in its simplicity. The light from the fire made it sparkle and Wanda almost dropped it in shock. How the hell had he managed to get this?  
  
As if reading her mind, Todd said, "I didn't steal it, promise. Remember all that time I wasn't around the house? You wouldn't believe how many people wanted odd jobs done. And man, they put a whole new meaning to the word, 'Odd'. I can't believe people actually want their ferrets taken for a walk." She nodded, thinking of the past two months, when the teen would be gone for the entire day, only to come home and drag himself into his room, where he'd crawl into bed in exhaustion. 'So THAT'S what he was doing.'  
  
"Thank you." She said softly, suddenly wishing in the back of her mind for some more privacy. She blinked, wondering to herself why she would want... 'Oh never mind.' She opened his other present, not cringing this time. It was a framed portrait of herself, in charcoal and drawn in such detail it was like looking at a photograph. Two T's were scrawled in the corner, Todd's simple signature. Left at a loss of words, she could only blink in astonishment. There was so much detail, he must have spent so much time on it... "Thank you." Her voice was still soft and for some reason, her eyes were stinging. She blinked rapidly, raising her voice fill the disturbingly quiet room. "So are we going to open these present from you now, Lance?"  
  
"Okay." He smiled knowingly, not saying anything else as he looked at the normally inflamed mutant, who was looking very quiet and thoughtful at the moment.  
  
"Mine too!" Rogue said, musingly studying Wanda.  
  
Lance had gotten everyone helmets, a black one for Fred, light blue for Pietro, red for Wanda, and green for Todd. "Uh, so that you guys don't wind up eventually getting a concussion from...me." He blushed, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.  
  
"This is going to come in VERY handy." Todd said, thinking back to all those times when the house seemed to choose HIM to drop it's ceiling on, from when Lance was pissed off.  
  
Rogue's was next, proving to be terry cloth bathrobes. Lance's was black, Fred's maroon, Todd's deep green and Pietro's dark purple. "I was remembering all those laundry days." She said with a smile, shaking her head at the memories of when the guys would run out of clothes and have to walk around the house in sheets, toga-style, while the laundry was done.  
  
"Awww, but the togas are fun!" Pietro protested, grinning at Rogue.  
  
"Oh, I almost forgot!" Kitty pulled out a big dish from behind her, holding it out. "I made you guys cookies!" She held the plate out to Lance, who forced a grin out and took a cookie, passing the plate on.  
  
The dish made a full round through the room, last with Todd, who carefully held up the unnaturally heavy pastry. They all looked at Lance expectedly, who bit into his, grinning at his girlfriend. Exchanging glances, the rest of the Brotherhood and Rouge, who'd been pushed into getting a cookie by Pietro, held up their lumpy "cookies" and bit into them. And froze. Kitty looked at them expectedly. Pietro led them out of the room to run into the kitchen, where they spit them out into the trash.  
  
"Were they really that bad?" Her face fell.  
  
Lance retrieved the plate and set it down, sitting back down next to her. "No way. They're just wimps." He took up another cookie and bit into it. Everyone else returned then, watching in shock as Avalanche happily munched on Kitty's "food".  
  
"Man, if that's not love, I don't know what is." Todd said. Everyone else nodded in agreement.  
  
"He's going to have to get his stomach pumped." Pietro commented, placing a tentative hand on his own delicate one, which he wasn't sure was going to survive all that torture. He settled back onto the couch, while everyone else got comfortable in his or her former spot.  
  
"Hey, can we steal the couch for now?" Lance asked.  
  
Rogue shrugged, not really caring. Pietro opened his mouth to argue, but she grabbed him and pulled him off forcefully before he could. "Heyyyy!" He expressed his disapproval to her back as she walked over to where Lance and Kitty were getting up. Seeing he wasn't going to win this, he got up, sitting next to Rogue on the rug by the fireplace. 'Oh well, it was warmer here anyway.' He thought smugly, pulling his knees up and hugging them.  
  
Lance leaned over the back of the couch, grabbing his guitar case. He took his beloved instrument out, putting the case down, and played his fingertips across the strings, then tightened several. He took out a pick and strummed it, making sure it was in tune. "What song first?" He'd first learned how to play Christmas songs, and they were infinitely simple, so he could still remember every one.  
  
"Everyone's gotta sing along." Fred said, looking at Rogue and Wanda, who blushed.  
  
"NO way!" They exclaimed together.  
  
"YES way!" The boys argued back.  
  
"It's tradition." Todd said happily.  
  
"You only started it last year!" Wanda protested.  
  
"More the reason to continue on with it." He grinned widely and she shook her head, smiling a bit.  
  
"Alright." She cast her blue eyes over to Rogue. "C'mon, you too. They won't leave you alone anyway."  
  
"Fine. Ah'm not guaranteeing that Ah'll know th' words, though." She said.  
  
"That's okay, you can learn them." Lance said, strumming the guitar and starting into a faster version of "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer", inspired the punk version of it.  
  
Next was Silent Night, the Twelve Redneck Days of Christmas, All I Want For Christmas is You (which seemed to mostly be sung by Lance and Kitty, who were giving each other what Fred had officially named 'The Googly-Eyes"), Walking 'Round in Women's Underwear, Rocking Around the Christmas Tree, I Won't Be Home for Christmas (by Blink 182, requested by Todd), Oi to the World (by No Doubt, requested by both Rogue and Wanda), Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime, Last Christmas (which was asked for by Pietro), Santa Clause is Coming to Town, and they finished off with The Hanukkah Song, which they'd sung for Kitty and partially for Pietro and Wanda, who were half-Jewish (although they didn't really celebrate it).  
  
"See, that wasn't so bad!" Pietro said to Rogue, nudging her.  
  
She blushed. "Maybe not too painful." She admitted. She'd really started getting into it, especially when she and Wanda had led the singing in 'Oi to the World".  
  
Lance carefully put his guitar back in its case, taking the time to put the guitar picks he'd gotten from Wanda. He felt the couch rock a tiny bit and he turned his head in surprise to see Todd crouched on the back of the sofa, holding up a piece of mistletoe above Lance and Kitty's head. The two looked at each other in surprise for a moment, then she leaned forward to gently kiss him on the lips. Once they'd finished, Todd was sent flying to the other side of the room, courtesy of Lance. "You guys are such a pain in the ass." He growled, putting his guitar back behind the couch. Todd grinned at him, upside down from where he was propped up against the wall, feet in the air.  
  
"But it's sooooo kyoooooot!!" Pietro crooned, catching the pillow that was thrown at his head.  
  
"Yeah, but nothing compares to you singing Last Christmas." Fred said, starting to pick up all the left over wrapping paper strewn all over the floor.  
  
"Oh shut up, you were singing too!" Quicksilver snapped, then got a huge wad of paper thrown at his head.  
  
"At least I didn't look as stupid as you did." The big mutant grinned, then got the ball of paper thrown back at him. Pietro scrambled to get more paper, packing it into a ball, and throwing it at Fred, dodging the ball that was thrown at him, which bounced off of Rogue's head instead.  
  
"Hey!" She started to get into the fight, grabbing a sheet of paper before Pietro could and balling it up, pitching it at Freddy.  
  
Unnoticed, Lance and Kitty slid off the couch and slipped outside.  
  
Kitty wrapped her slender arms around herself, warding off the cold. Lance tucked an arm around her waist, pulling her close as they walked through the back yard, heading a little bit into the woods that were on the outskirts of the lawn. He stopped, facing the girl who melted against him, comforted by his warmth and sturdy body.  
  
After a moment of standing there, she spoke. "So why did you want to come out here?"  
  
"I wanted to give you the rest of your present."  
  
She blinked in surprise. "The rest of..."  
  
He nodded, reaching into his pocket and fishing out something. He motioned for her hand, which she held out. His hand still closed around the item, he held it over own tiny white one, dropping it onto the smooth palm. She felt cool metal and held her hand up to her face to see what was in it. There, nestled against the porcelain skin, was Lance's class ring on a delicate gold chain. She raised wide baby blue eyes to his warm chocolate one's.  
  
"I.I'm not sure if I'll actually be able to graduate, but I'm sure as hell gonna try, and I. want you to hang onto it." His tone was somewhat nervous as he carefully searched her eyes.  
  
Kitty was still, quietly digesting the sweet and heart-felt words. Then she threw her arms around his strong neck, balancing on one foot so that she could neatly bury her head in the juncture between his neck and shoulder. "Thank you." Shadowcat whispered.  
  
He held her close, relishing in the sweet smell of her hair, the closeness of her slender body against his, her warm breath against his neck. "Merry Christmas." Avalanche whispered.  
  
"Happy Holidays." She kissed him.  
  
* * *  
  
Todd was sitting with his back to the wall, thoroughly enjoying the show before him, as Pietro, Fred and Rogue (very uncharacteristically), had a full-fledged paper war. A sudden tap on his shoulder made him look up, surprised to see Wanda standing next to him, and even more surprised when she motioned for him to follow her. He stood up without question, following her into the foyer, where they both put on their coats, and then outside.  
  
The silence between the two was almost comfortable as they walked down the front lawn, the only sounds being the crunching of snow under their shoes. He walked with her, wondering silently where they were going, and even more so as to why she wanted to take him there. She looked like she was in too much of a good mood to take him somewhere to quietly kill and bury his body.  
  
They walked down the street, finally turning into a tiny park that was completely devoid of any other people on that crisp Christmas night. The Scarlet Witch stopped in the center of the park, a small clearing, and looked up at the sky, where the stars were especially bright, as they always were in such cold weather.  
  
"Wanda?" He finally ventured, standing next to her and watching her peaceful and thoughtful face in wonder.  
  
"Thank you." She said, face still turned upwards.  
  
"Huh?" His brow furrowed in confusion. "For what?"  
  
She looked at him. "For the presents. I know I already said thank you, but. it felt like I should be saying it in private. And. I guess I just wanted to thank you for helping to make this such a wonderful Christmas for me."  
  
He smiled softly. "Oh. You're welcome." He could feel his cheeks starting to heat up, especially when her blue eyes met his own. Unconsciously, he took several steps closer, so that he was standing right in front of her, astonished, somewhere in the back of his mind, that she was letting him get so close to her. "You're a surprising person, you know that?"  
  
"Why's that?" She wondered, not at all bothered by their closeness. If anything, it was comforting.  
  
"Well, for someone that can act like such a hard ass all the time, you can be really sweet when you get down to it."  
  
She blinked thoughtfully. "I'll take that as a compliment."  
  
He blushed a little brighter, smiling shyly. "It was supposed to be one."  
  
"Oh." Not even thinking about it, letting her emotions and some part of her that she usually kept tied down in a little box guide her, she leaned closer to him, and gently kissed him.  
  
As his warm lips brushed against hers, a million thoughts and emotions rushed through her in a single moment, feelings of warmth and acceptance, and, as she felt strong arms tenderly wrap around her body and hold her, a rising warmth that came from her belly and spread through the rest of her.  
  
The kiss was gentle, neither of them going beyond any real boundaries, and was all the more sweeter for that fact. How long they stayed like that was impossible to tell, but when both broke away from it, they were starry eyes and very quiet, their breath even seeming muted. He reached out to take her hands, giving her that shy smile again, which she found herself returning.  
  
"Merry Christmas." She whispered, her hands warm in his.  
  
"Merry Christmas."  
  
* * *  
  
YAYYYYYYY! FINALLY DONE!!! Whelp, I had really wanted this story done by X- mas, but that didn't happen for a number of reasons. The main one being that I didn't want this chapter to turn out to be shit. :P I'll hopefully be writing another X-Men story soon, once I finish my Invader Zim one. One of my New Year's Resolutions was to get my lazy ass writing more, or else I'll have to eat live hamsters. I'm hoping it'll work. ^^  
  
*Notes: You REALLY have to listen to last Christmas, because you can just REALLLLLLY get the mental image of the guys singing it. ^^ Also, I really don't know many Jewish people, so I'm not too clear as to how they take Christmas, and if they celebrate it or not. I certainly hope I didn't offend anyone with it, I just felt the need to put Kitty in this story. ( Oh yeah, and I dun know if it's only a Florida thing, but there really is store called Faravilla's, and it's. quite interesting. ^^ 


End file.
